How can we make sanitation services last forever? Challenges, lessons and good practices were shared by participants and presenters at the AfricaSan 3 conference in Kigali, Rwanda held from 18 to 22 July 2011. IRC facilitated several sessions and a hands-on training seminar on applying the life-cycle cost approach.
Published on: 19/09/2011
Experience from the field shows that water and sanitation services are often delivered reliably immediately following huge capital investments in infrastructure but then they tend to decline afterwards due to a lack of follow up investments. There is a lack of funding for capital maintenance and direct support to sustain these services and ensure continued access by the poorest in the long term.
On the 20th of July, Catarina Fonseca and Alana Potter (IRC) convened a session on at AfricaSan on financing for sanitation and hygiene behaviour change with 100 participants. An international group of WASH professionals gave inputs in the session: Christophe le Jalle, from Ps-Eau, a network of French and international WASH organisations, presented an overview of issues regarding financing the sanitation chain. Andreas Holtkotte, from the German Development Bank KfW explored the specific issues regarding financing sanitation in low income areas. Guy Norman, from Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) presented a step by step performance based financing concept for urban sanitation infrastructure. The 100 participants appreciated the range of different perspectives on financing post-construction of sanitation and the presentation of the latest WASHCost data on sanitation and hygiene. The WASHCost findings from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique were presented by Catarina Fonseca, Kwabena Nyarko (KNUST, Ghana) and Andre Uandela, from WASHCost Mozambique.
Lessons from the financing sanitation session
While there is consensus that current financing is not being used effectively and not reaching the poorest, there is no one size fits all solution for financing sanitation. Instead, there is a need to diversify the financial approaches. Mechanisms have to be put in place to resolve the issue locally. Most investments are financed by households and by public funds. It is very challenging to attract private investment into the sector. Thought has to be given as to how to make sanitation attractive to local banks.
Training on life-cycle cost approach
An evidence based breakdown of costs in sanitation and hygiene can provide guidance on how cost effectiveness can be achieved. The life-cycle cost approach shifts the focus from only the financing and costing technologies to the costing of lasting services. The WASHCost project has field tested methods for collecting and using these costs. These methods are one of the building blocks of the WASH Services that Last training package.
On Friday 22 July, an intensive and targeted full-day training on the life-cycle cost approach was facilitated by André Uandela, Alana Potter and Catarina Fonseca. The session was positively evaluated as inspiring and innovative by the participants.
